Kansas City Chiefs star Chris Jones has offered to pay $1.5 million worth of chicken wings to free an Illinois school worker from prison.
Jones does not appear to know Vera Lidell, who stole $1.5 million worth of food from the Harvey School District in Dolton, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago.
The bulk of that $1.5 million worth of stolen food was chicken wings, and Lidell ordered an additional 11,000 cases of chicken wings.
The additional orders were reportedly placed between October 2020 and February 2022.
Local police believe Lidell acted alone in the chicken wing case, and she pleaded guilty earlier this month to charges of theft and operating a criminal enterprise. by ABC7.
Lidell pleaded guilty to stealing $1.5 million worth of chicken wings from an Illinois school district
Jones has offered on social media to pay for the stolen wings to free Lidell from prison.
Lidell, 66, has been sentenced to nine years in prison and worked for the school district for more than a decade before her arrest.
“I’ll pay for the wings she stole to free herself,” Jones said in X.
Lidell’s job was to place food orders with Gordon Food Services, which supplies meals to the district.
Court documents describe chicken wings as a food not typically served to students because of the bones, according to ABC7.
An audit found that the school district’s food service department had exceeded its annual budget by $300,000 at the end of the year, leading to Lidell’s arrest.
Jones signed a five-year, $158.75 million contract extension with the Chiefs in March, with $95 million guaranteed.